Copenhagen: The Latest Architecture and News

OKRA, in collaboration with CCO, ACT, and Smith Innovation, recently won the competition for their Ejby Campus Business area proposal located in the Glostrup Commune near Copenhagen. Their sustainable and innovative development strategy focuses on the creation of a diverse program and the use of public space. With the opportunity to rethink the business areas of suburbia, the business area currently plays an important role in providing economically attractive workplaces in an accessible, open and green setting. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Designed by SHJ (Simon Hjermind Jensen) Works, Fire Shelter: 01 is a personal project located in at Sydhavnstippen in Copenhagen. Taking inspiration from architecture of ethnic and nomadic people, the starting point for the design emerged from a fascination of the place. It´s a temporary project and a design experiment that aims to celebrate the place. The project has public access, and it establishes experiences of spatial and social character. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Opening tomorrow, January 17, at the Danish Architecture Centre (DAC) in Copenhagen, Denmark, the ‘In Dialogue with the World’ exhibition, which runs until March 10, will show how architects today engage far beyond aesthetics when designing buildings. schmidt hammer lassen architects, along with Henning Larsen Architects, and ADEPT will invite visitors to listen to their accounts of what it is like to work in the field of architecture in the 21st century. With the title Give more, the schmidt hammer lassen architects’ part of the exhibition uses eight selected projects as examples of how buildings, aside from being beautiful, give more. More information after the break.

Located in one of the most distinguished locations in Copenhagen, the second prize winning proposal for the Sølund Retirement Community by Henning Larsen Architects is designed as one large, continuous building block. Their design engages in close dialogue with the surrounding buildings and creates simple, easily accessible spatialities – both on the inside and on the outside. Also including a new daycare center, the project incorporates the qualities of the residents’ previous homes in a new retirement community based on worthiness and well-being, safety and social relations. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Aimed at being a city for kids, the Prinsessegade Kindergarten and Youth Club Winning Proposal by COBE + NORD Architects, in collaboration with PK3 and Grontmij, will be the largest daycare center in all of Denmark. It also presents a big challenge – how to avoid creating a daycare factory when building an institution for so many users. Their design is not just one huge building, but rather a cluster of many small and varied buildings, grouped around two central streets that connect to the surrounding city structure. Like Copenhagen, it has different neighborhoods, different houses, different public spaces, squares and parks. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The proposal for the Natural History Museum of Denmark, designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates, Erik Møller Arkitekter, and JAJA Architects, focuses on creating a coherent and inseparable experience which mixes the experiences of the conventional museum and the classical garden into a series of remarkable spaces. Its location within the beautiful and historical setting of the city’s botanical garden creates a potential for a museum that is more authentic, more engaging and more open for everyone. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Copenhagen based architecture firm Tredje Natur recently presented their plans to develop Denmark’s first climate adapted neighborhood, which transforms Saint Kjeld’s Quarter into Copenhagen’s greenest neighborhood. The comprehensive urban development project seeks to demonstrate how the city can be arranged so rainwater can be managed in the streets in a more natural and effective way. Their project offers a wide range of pragmatic strategies to meet the many expectations in the area. As a key principle the architects reclaim 20% of the street area by optimizing the infrastructure and parking lots according to current standard. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Architect: CEBRA Location: Tuborg Havnevej 7, Hellerup, DK Client: Experimentarium Area: Approximately 30.000 m2 modernization and extension Program: Center for Natural Science and Technology Competition Year: 2011 Completion Year: 2015

After placing first in the design competition to transform an old mineral water bottling plant into a Science Center, CEBRA will move forward with the adapted proposal upon receipt of a substantial donation from the The A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation. The original building will be restored to serve as an interactive national center for science, technology and culture and house the Experimentarium’s diverse exhibition and education activities for the neighboring communities. CEBRA’s solution of layering a new expression on the historic entity brings science to the forefront while acknowledging contextual cues that create links back to its surroundings.

More about the project after the break.